The subject matter disclosed herein relates generally to imaging systems, and more particularly, embodiments relate to systems and methods for determining an alignment for a medical imaging system.
Positron Emission Tomography (PET) and Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography (SPECT) systems scan objects to acquire image information, in particular physiological information. During operation of a PET or SPECT imaging system, for example, a patient is initially injected with a radiopharmaceutical. After some period of time, the patient is positioned within the imaging system and a scan of the patient is performed.
The patient must be properly positioned within the imaging system in order to acquire the image information. Specifically, if a patient is not properly aligned with respect to the medical imaging system, the organ of interest may not be within the field of view of the imaging system. In this case, the patient is repositioned and the scanning operation is repeated. This process may be performed multiple times if patient positioning is inadequate. Repeatedly repositioning the patient with respect to the medical imaging system increases both the duration of the overall scanning procedure and may increase patient discomfort.